Short hops and hard knocks with Red Sox beat writer Ian Browne.

Results tagged ‘ Jed Lowrie ’

A different kind of Sunday morning in the Red Sox clubhouse today, as Frank Sinatra’s legendary voice replaced the usual mix of country, rap and hip hop. Good stuff, though some players — particularly Kevin Youkilis — seemed perplexed by the choice.

In actual baseball news, not a whole lot going on. Jacoby Ellsbury, who likely didn’t eat much beyond soup and jello this weekend in his rehab from intestinal turmoil, is back in the lineup, batting sixth.

In lineup news, Kevin Youkilis moved over to third for the day, as Mark Kotsay — the brains behind the Sinatra selection — got the start at first. Mike Lowell and Jed Lowrie got the day off, but you could see one or both off the bench.

Roy Halladay liftime against the Red Sox: 12-12, 4.46 ERA. How is that possible? Don’t all of you feel like we’ve watched this guy throw a ton of gems against Boston?

Jed Lowrie has cleared customs and will start at shortstop for the Red Sox for the first time since April 11. The switch-hitter is feeling good and eager to show that he is all the way back from left wrist surgery.

In other news, Mike Lowell is back in there for a second straight day, but will get a day off tomorrow, with Lowrie moving to third and Green playing short.

Jason Varitek has the day game after the night game off today. With Wakefield not pitching until the sixth and final day of the trip, Tito didn’t want Varitek to do too much too soon coming out of the All-Star break.

SS Julio Lugo has been designated for assignment, ending his disappointing two and a half year run with the Red Sox.

Not really a surprise, and the only mystery now is if Lugo will be traded — with the Red Sox picking up most of the $13.5 million left on his contract — or just give him his outright release.

Mike Lowell is expected to be back on the roster tonight, playing third base. Shortstop Jed Lowrie will arrive tomorrow and it will be interesting to see how the playing time gets distributed between he and Green.

And, of course, there is the spectacle tonight of Clay Buchholz making his first start of the season in what is expected to be a one and done assignment.

Shortstop Jed Lowrie is so eager to re-join the Red Sox that he will drive hundreds of miles to get at-bats on his Minor League rehab assignment.

When Triple-A Pawtucket’s doubleheader at Scranton-Wilkes Barre was washed out on Monday, Lowrie hopped in a car and drove to Manchester, N.H., where Double-A Portland was playing.

Lowrie’s trek was worthwhile, as the switch-hitter went 3-for-5 with two RBIs.

“He got in a car, went 400 miles, got to Manchester, played today at noon,” said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. “Before he left, they did a lot of simulated stuff in the cages and had a good work day and was 3-for-5 today, swung the bat, ran the bases, had a really good day. He will most likely stay there [with Portland] two more days and then when Pawtucket comes home, he would rejoin them.”

The clock on Lowrie’s rehab assignment runs out on Friday. However, if the Red Sox don’t feel he’s ready to be activated yet, they could essentially extend his rehab assignment by optioning him to the Minor Leagues through the All-Star break.

Lowrie is recovering from left wrist surgery, and was slowed for a few days after being hit in the knee by a pitch in late June.

“The clock is running out on that, so we’ll have to put our heads together and see where he is,” said Francona.

John Smoltz, the future Hall of Famer,formally beginshis career with the Boston Red Sox tonight, pitching here in the Nation’s Capital. It should be good theater for sure, as evidenced by the sight of several national writers in the press box, including Gordon Edes of Yahoo!, Jack Curry of the New York Times and Ken Rosenthal of Fox and Foxports.com.

Meanwhile, Big Papi David Ortiz is back in the cleanup hole for the first time since 2005 on a night Kevin Youkilis is out of the lineup. Just a rest for Youk as manager Terry Francona adapts to National League rules. It will be interesting to see if Ortiz settles into the cleanup spot between Youkilis and Bay, to give them more of a right-left effect in the middle.

Jed Lowrie’s rehab has been set back a couple of days after he got belted in the knee earlier this week. Lowrie should be back in the PawSox lineup by Saturday.

It’s a lively Friday night at Fenway, and a nice hot one (84 degrees at game time) with the Mets in the house.

Dice-K and Johan. Good matchup, good way to embark on Interleague. Sheff just hit a moonshot against Dice-K. The always-entertaining veteran is now 7-for-12 lifetime against the Dice Man with two homers.

With each home run by Jason Bay, you wonder two things. Is he going to be a top five MVP candidate? And are the Red Sox going to re-sign him?

WEEI.com today reported the approximate contract figures the Red Sox and Bay exchanged during the spring. The Red Sox offered Bay somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 million. Bay and his agent countered were looking for $14 million a year. Also, Bay was hoping for three-four years and the Red Sox didn’t want to go that far by the time the sides decided to break up talks. There has been no rekindling of the talks since then.

Clearly, Bay has hit more like a $14 million to start the year. But will that continue? Can the sides find common ground or is some team going to blow Bay out of the water In this economy, it is very hard to judge. But I’m sure that Red Sox fans — who are falling in love with Bay — will be upset if he leaves. Perhaps not as upset, however, if Theo pays the freight to bring Matt Holliday to town.

Why no Rocco in right field tonight? Because Ellsbury is on fire, Drew had a day off two days ago, and Santana is every bit as nasty against righties as he is against lefties. Baldelli will make the start on Monday afternoon in Minnesota against Francisco Liriano.

In Jed Lowrie news, the shortstop is doing a great job with his rehab and remains on track to get back in the lineup in late June or early July. “I don’t think that’s a surprise,” Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. “He’s young and a very hard-worker and he’s very diligent in what he’s doing. When we were on the road, he was going over to see [rehab trainer] Scotty Waugh at 7:30 in the morning. Things he doesn’t have to do. But I do think young kids heal quicker than older guys. That’s just the way it is. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s right on time or a little early.”

Lowrie was taking some grounders on Friday. “He’s been out there with Bogey doing the throwing and everything. He’s just doing a little more every day. One day I went down to go to the bathroom in the fifth inning. This is back a few weeks and he had the bat in his hands. He gave me that look like, I got caught. All good players do that.”

Give the Red Sox and Josh Beckett credit for not belaboring the appeal process. One Boston officials spoke with the league and found out they could go from a six-game suspension to a five-game suspension, they immediately talked Beckett into accepting it.

The timing couldn’t be better for the Sox. With Thursday’s off-day, the rotation now lines up perfectly. Jon Lester can now step into Beckett’s original spot on Friday, and make that turn on a regular four days of rest. Beckett will simply pitch Saturday, and get six days rest.

The rotation against the Yankees will be Lester-Beckett-Masterson, though the Red Sox do have the option of pitching Wakefield on Sunday if they choose. I have a feeling they will keep things as is, and give Wake the extra day.

How will Tito manuver the bullpen in the late innings today? Papelbon pitched the last two days; Saito pitched last night and has yet to go back to back. Okajima worked the last two days. My deductive reasoning leads me to believe Ramon Ramirez will get the ball in the ninth today.

We should finally learn Jed Lowrie‘s fate by tomorrow. Will he or won’t he have surgery?

Good to see old friend Mike Timlin back at Fenway today. Mike’s wife Dawn is running the Marathon tomorrow. Timlin spent a lot of time in the clubhouse this morning speaking to his old teammates. It appears he is retired, as no teams were interested in him over the winter. Today, Timlin is taking in the game from the Monster Seats.

You think Jed Lowrie is ready for Opening Day? The switch-hitter continues to crush the ball in Spring Training. He had another big night in Sarasota, going 3-for-4 with a homer. Lowrie is hitting .462 on the spring with six doubles, two triples, two homers and 10 RBIs.

“Put him on
ice,” said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. “I’m stating the obvious, but he’s been taking great swings. He’s been swinging
the bat since Day One. He’s probably in a little bit more of a groove because
he’s playing a little more consistently than everybody else. But he has been on
everything. It’s been fun to watch.”

Obviously Lowrie is a different player with a healthy wrist than the guy who tried as best he could throughout the second half of 2008.

“To be brutally
honest, he didn’t get to those pitches last year. Especially towards the end of
the year. He looks like he feels good about himself. He should,” Francona said.

“To be
able to stay on top of that ball and stay through it instead of just coming
around it, that’s the difference,” Lowrie said.

How about Game 2 of Bay Watch? Jason Bay absolutely cranked that pitch
from Santana for a three-run homer and it’s 4-0 before you can even say
“Time for Dice-K to warm up”.

Obviously the Angels have plenty of time to mount a rally, but quite an opening salvo for the Sox here in the OC.

For those who might think that Red Sox manager Terry Francona is overly loyal to his veteran players, it was perhaps interesting to see that Mike Lowell started Game 2 on the bench.

Lowell has had no setbacks with his right hip. It hurts, and it is going to hurt for the rest of the postseason. Sure, Lowell wanted to play tonight. But Francona liked the favorable matchup with Mark Kotsay — 7-for-18 against Santana — and played him at first, with Youkilis moving across the diamond to third.

I also like the move at shortstop, where Alex Cora will make his first psotseason start in a Red Sox uniform in place of the slumping Jed Lowrie.

But what tonight boils down to more than anything is this: Which Dice-K will we get?

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